It’s ridiculous but it’s true – Haringey Council has been tarmacing over manhole covers when repairing roads with the result that (1) dealing with leaks etc becomes much harder as the manhole cover is covered in tarmac! and (2) it makes for a weak road surface, with the tarmac breaking and causing potholes more quickly than would otherwise be the case. As I said – ridiculous! My colleague Martin Newton (Fortis Green councillor) spotted this one on Fortis Green Road:
As Martin puts it, “Residents are rightly fed up with a system that plasters over the cracks rather than carrying out a proper job which would make our roads better, safer and, in the long run save Haringey Council money.”
Good news for Haringey's pedestrian crossings
A campaign success this week. My colleague Cllr Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green ward) has been spearheading a campaign to get Haringey Council to check the state of pedestrian crossings near schools – and to repaint etc as necessary.
He was spurred on by having discovered several dangerous crossings – so it wasn’t just a matter of fixing what was found to be wrong, but getting the systems right for the future.
Here’s hoping … but if you spot any other crossings that need work, do let me know.
Another day, another Haringey parking fiasco
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse … Martin Newton (councillor for Fortis Green ward) has been doing a survey of parking bays in Muswell Hill and found that many of them don’t meet the rules for how parking bays should be laid out and explained to the public.
Earlier this year we forced Haringey Council to replace confusing and contradictory parking signage – and also to add further stickers to pay-and-display machines to try to explain bewildering restrictions. More recently investigations by Liberal Democrat councillors also uncovered that at five of the seven yellow box junctions enforced by CCTV in Haringey, penalty notices had to be cancelled due to incorrect lines, signs or Traffic Management Orders. And now this!
Given the number of parking scandals involving Haringey Council, you could start to think it’s a conspiracy rather than incompetence. The Labour council leaders need to act soon to resolve faith in our borough’s parking rules.
Parking fines
Had a meeting last week with three people who are fighting the fight for fairness for motorists. In the wake of the revelations over Labour-run Haringey Council fining motorists for being in two yellow junction boxes in the borough which were illegally drawn – I am meeting them at their request. Some may regard it as supping with the devil – but that’s the point – motorists aren’t devils and they have as much right to fairness under the law as everyone else.
When I was Chair of Transport at the London Assembly I carried out an investigation publicly into parking enforcement in London. Judging from the visit I had from three borough leaders – yes one from each of the main parties – I was lucky not to end up with concrete boots in the Thames! The boroughs didn’t want me to look at this – and that just made me want to look harder. Without going into the findings – suffice to say – that income from parking etc. forms a standard part of the budget of many councils and therefore not all concerns by the motoring lobby are unfounded.
As someone who has often campaigned for parking restrictions and regulation – my concern is that they must be fair and reasonable – and they must be there for a good reason. The scrutiny at the London Assembly found many, many unfair practises and there were loads of recommendations. One – which I think Westminster took up – but not as strongly as I would have liked – is greater sensitivity to the severity of the offence. For example I don’t think that being a couple of minutes late back to a meter when time has expired should carry the same fine as a more serious infringement.
Back to my meeting last week. What Haringey’s illegal junction boxes boil down to is ‘unlawfully earned income’ – which in my view Haringey should therefore be refunding. (A view shared by at least one Labour councillor – Alan Stanton – though he has got into hot water with his colleagues for saying that in public).
Councils cannot and should not be above the law on such things. If we, the public, are to respect the laws and abide by them – they must be fair and be seen to be fair. And that includes the law applying to councils as well as to residents.
What is so interesting – is that if you get a ticket and the signing has been misleading or the junction box illegal – you can challenge it – and chances are that you will get your ticket written off. But there is no comeback on the firm/council/authority as a result. What I would prefer to see is that if it’s decided that you got a ticket wrongly – then there should also be scope for part of the ruling to be that the misleading sign or whatever must be changed.
Anyway – Cllr Martin Newton, who is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for traffic etc on Haringey Council, attended the meeting with me and he is taking it forward at council level. I have written to the Chief Executive, however, to ask if Haringey is going to refund all the motorists who were illegally fined for the two yellow junction boxes. We will see!
Good news for Muswell Hill parking
Hurrah! A victory for local people in Muswell Hill and their campaigning Lib Dem councillor – Martin Newton.
After Martin exposed the hideous mess that parking signage is in Muswell Hilll following the introduction of the Council’s Stop & Shop scheme’s – Labour Haringey has finally caved in and are doing (or appear to be beginning to do) the right thing. At least Cllr Brian Haley (Labour’s parking supremo) had the sense to respond to our pressure and come and see for himself. And having seen – he clearly had to act.
Well done Martin! As Martin puts it, “We have been campaigning for months to get parking signage not only legally compliant but also clear. We will have to wait to see if the proposals will be enough to put an end to the current confusion which has left motorists feeling that the Labour Council are deliberately setting out to confuse in order to slap a ticket on the windscreen.”
Flooding in Muswell Hill
Going to my constituency office today, I get a call from the police telling me of a flood in Muswell Hill at the bottom of Ally Pally – so I head over on foot to see what’s up. (See the photos over on Flickr). All traffic had been stopped. Encountering a policeman I ask what is happening and he gets a car to take me up to the meeting place where Chris Donaldson from the Metropolitan Police is in charge and all of the agencies were coordinating their work. A 24 inch main had burst and a torrent of water was cascading down through Alexandra Palace Park into the backs of houses on Redston Road. The fire service were diverting and channelling the water away from residences as well as they could and sand-bagging up houses’ entrances to protect them.
The water board reckoned they would get the main turned off within a half hour – but as this was at a pumping station they had to turn off a series of mains across London before this one. The emergency services seemed extremely efficient and I then walked down through the park to see the worst affected houses.
It was terrible to see the gushing torrents coming out of peoples’ houses. The high odd numbers on Redston Road were worst hit. I went inside with Mrs Catherine Harper – one local resident – to see how bad it was. Her carpet was sodden and the patio out the back completely submerged. Other residents I met couldn’t speak highly enough of the fire service who had rushed into peoples’ houses and helped householders lift all their moveable possession upstairs or at least piled above where the water had come to.
In another house, where builders were working, they had erected barriers to protect three or four of the houses at the back by diverting the water around. Other local neighbours were coming out of their houses with broom and wellies.
My councillor Lib Dem colleagues Gail Engert, Martin Newton and Robert Gorrie were also all there to offer help. I left after about an hour and a half (with rather wet feet!), stopping at The Priory – which is sheltered accommodation for the elderly on Priory Road. I briefly met the warden and manager there who were all coping magnificently and trying to get hold of more sandbags – which were on their way. They were keeping everyone safely inside.
It was certainly quite a bad burst water main – and I guess that all of us who have been watching the dreadful floods throughout the country over recent days never dreamt that a part of Muswell Hill would experience flooding. It’s not on the scale of the rest of the country – but for those affected – it is dreadful.
Congratulations to all of the emergency services who really worked fantastically to help local people – well impressed!
Pay and Display: have your say
My colleague Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green) is running an online survey to find out what people think about the Pay and Display schemes in Crouch End and also in Muswell Hill. You can take part in the survey at http://www.libertyresearch.org.uk/take/97
Stop and shop in Haringey
Busy day at surgery – and harrowing as usual. Followed by rushing up to Muswell Hill Broadway to receive a huge petition (3,450) against the Stop & Shop proposals from Labour-run Haringey Council. The petition was started by Andrew Rowan of 225 Jewellery Exchange with signatures that were collected during the summer by traders along Muswell Hill Broadway, between the roundabout and Colney Hatch Lane.
The 
petition calling for ‘FAIR PARKING’, and requested a few free short-term parking bays to match those provided along the other stretches of the Broadway. It also requested warning signs to be provided notifying people that parking enforcement by CCTV camera takes place in the area. I might add – a CCTV camera that was earning a fortune for Haringey Council – trained on a safe place to stop by a cash point. A nice little earner!
There have never been any calls by these traders for Pay and Display to be provided and they have been very angry that Pay and Display has been the only option that the Council seems to be prepared to consider. Good to see though that they are also proposing positive plans as well as opposing Labour’s unwanted ideas.
I say unwanted because the first stage of consultation on the Labour Council’s ‘Stop and Shop’ parking scheme in Muswell Hill shows that an overwhelming 98.8% (really!) of responses were for the scheme to be scrapped. Liberal Democrat councillors felt it was necessary to scrutinise the responses to the Council’s consultation, and found that of 724 responses to the consultation, just 9 were in favour of the proposals. Crouch End has also responded with a resounding ‘No’ – with 90% opposition to its pay and display scheme (out of 143 responses, 128 were against the plans).
Local councillor Martin Newton, Lib Dem spokesperson for Environment, Traffic and Highways has written to Cllr Brian Haley, Labour Executive Member for Environment, to ask for these schemes to be abandoned, as virtually no one wanted these pay and display schemes in Muswell Hill or Crouch End. Cllr Haley has often been quoted saying that the Council do not impose parking schemes on unwilling residents, so he has been asked to honour this, and to not go ahead with imposing these schemes against the wishes of the local community.
I am now going to wade in with a letter to the Council Leader George Meehan to honour the Council’s pledge that it listens to local people and doesn’t impose unwanted schemes on them.
Relocating the police in Muswell Hill?
On 
Thursday it was off with Sgt Paul Saunders, head of the Muswell Hill Safer Neighbourhood Team to look for suitable premises to re-house two of teams in the community. The Met Police are looking to put the community teams right in the heart of the community they serve – which is the right idea. The idea is to have four main central locations in Haringey for key functions: detention and custody; administration; response teams etc and then each neighbourhood to have its local team based at its heart.
Everyone loves their police station. It makes us feel safe, makes it easier to contact the police in non-emergencies and helps make the police part of the local community (rather than a distant impersonal force). With the reopening of the front counter at Muswell Hill Police Station – following a long campaign together with local police and residents – and with the arrival of the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, there has been a sense of vastly improving engagement between the police and the community. When I was on the London Assembly, along with my colleagues I supported full funding for the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, and I’ve had a few battles to ensure that parts of the borough don’t miss out on them – so it’s really good to see the reality and that it’s working!
This was clearly evidenced walking around with Sgt Saunders, his colleague Pauline Hearfield and local councillor Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green). It was crystal clear by the way everyone said hello to Pauline and Paul that community policing is certainly working well in this patch. In fact, everyone knew them and they knew everybody – not only creating good public/police relations but also the level of knowledge and contact that helps gather intelligence and evidence – and so stop crime and catch crooks.
When the first murmurs of reorganising where police were stationed hit the streets, I had met with local Commander Simon O’Brien. The old Victorian Police stations are not ‘fit for purpose’ and so long as what is offered to local people in exchange for moving from that police station is better or equal then I think the police can argue a good case for the change.
In this light I went round with the police to talk about potential new premises. Some potential premises have already been identified. We walked past a great shop on Fortis Green that they had just missed – and then proceeded to PiP, the printers at the top of Dukes Avenue. I have yet to clarify whether it is ground and basement or the flats above too. If it is the latter, then it has potential – although a lot of work will need to be done (and it begs the question how much will it cost – because at a certain level it might be more economic to modernise the existing premises). If it doesn’t have the extra space – then I am not sure that everything will fit comfortably. So I am writing to Chief Superintendent O’Brien to clarify the situation and to get cast-iron guarantees about the space and what is to go in there exactly. Moreover, Simon O’Brien has also said that he is committed to working with the community, local councillors etc on this and I am also writing to establish how this is going to happen in advance of decisions being taken.
Parking plans – and blog comments
No – I ‘m not quite ‘out of office’ yet – but on my way. Before I go, just thought I would give you the latest update on the ‘Stop & Shop’ and CPZ proposals and consultations. My colleague, Cllr Martin Newton who is the LibDem spokesperson for Traffic and Transport on the Council has put together this latest info:
Stop and Shop: The consultations for Muswell Hill and Crouch End finished on 27th July. The Council is currently analysing all the feedback for these proposals in order to decide the need for, and format of, any further consultation with the local community.
It is unclear at the moment if Pay and Display for Muswell Hill and Crouch End could still be imposed on the local community – despite an overwhelming call for a new proper consultation to take place following a street-by-street study to assess any existing parking problems.
We will be looking at the feedback from these initial consultations in September to keep a close watch on what Haringey Council intends to do.
CPZs: The consultations are due to finish on 8th August. Due to pressure from the Lib Dems and local community, a second stage of consultation is now being considered by the Council and this is likely to happen in September. We do not have any details at the moment of what the Council proposes for this further consultation, but will let you know as soon as we get further details.
We will be keeping up the pressure on the Council, and it is important to know that the Council views CPZs and Pay and Display regimes as totally different proposals.
And very lastly – following up on the debate as to whether I should have comments on this blog: due to public demand as they say – I will be experimenting with this come September.
Lynne Featherstone 